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1956 Map of La Plata

Name: 1956 Topographic Map of La Plata
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1985
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1985

About this map

The town of La Plata serves as a central hub on this Maryland coastal plain survey, showing the community just as post-war suburban expansion began to take shape. The map highlights a landscape in transition, where established rural settlements like Beantown and Newtown sit alongside the emerging footprints of St Charles and Waldorf. Notable local landmarks include the Archbishop Neale Sch and Sacred Heart church, while the Mt Rest Cem provides a point of interest for those tracing family history in the county seat.

Transportation and resource extraction are key to the area's development, evidenced by the Conrail lines and the unique Government Railroad heading toward the Naval Res. The natural geography is dominated by the extensive Zekiah Swamp Run and Port Tobacco River Swamp, which hem in the cultivated lands and road networks like the Robert Crain Highway. This edition includes purple revisions from the early 1980s, documenting the rapid growth of housing developments near White Plains.